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Article: Hitler and the socialist dream He declared that 'national socialism was based on Marx' Socialists have always disowned him. But a new book insists that he was, at heart, a left-winger
- Article from:
- The Independent (London, England)
- Article date:
- November 22, 1998
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1998 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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In April 1945, when Adolf Hitler died by his own hand in the
rubble of Berlin, nobody was much interested in what he had once
believed. That was to be expected. War is no time for reflection,
and what Hitler had done was so shattering, and so widely known
through images of naked bodies piled high in mass graves, that little
or no attention could readily be paid to National Socialism as an
idea. It was hard to think of it as an idea at all. Hitler, who had
once looked a crank or a clown, was exposed as the leader of a gang
of thugs, and the world was content to know no more than that.
Half a century on, there is much to be said. Even thuggery can
have its reasons, and the materials that have ...